Argentina Debates Pope's Political Past

By

Matt Moffett

March 15, 2013

BUENOS AIRES—After the initial national euphoria over the election of an Argentine pope, a debate over Pope Francis' actions during the 1970s military dictatorship has brought old scars to the surface of Argentina's society.

At issue is what the new pope did, or didn't, do to oppose the brutal juntas that ruled from 1976 and 1983, and, more specifically, what he did in the case of two priests from his order who were arrested and held for months in a torture center.

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A prominent leftist journalist, with close ties to the current populist government, has denounced the pontiff for complicity in the case and for a broader failure to take a more vocal role in opposing abuses of the era. But in an authorized biography, published three years ago, the pope denied betraying the priests and said he "moved like crazy" to win their release.

The accusations have created a cloud over Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's election as pope, which otherwise has been well-received for its tone of humility and spontaneity. On Friday, the Vatican said that the "campaign against Cardinal Bergoglio is well-known and goes back to many years ago," adding that the accusations against him were "firmly and clearly denied."

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The issue is politically charged in Argentina. The leftist government of President Cristina Kirchner has championed the legacy of victims of the dictatorship, while often feuding with Cardinal Bergoglio on issues such as her government's support for gay marriage.

The case also resonates with individuals, as it underscores the question of collective guilt in the so-called dirty war in which at least 10,000 people, perhaps thousands more, were killed by a ruthless dictatorship.

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Pope Francis met with the full College of Cardinals, electors and nonelectors, in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Friday.
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Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who won the Nobel Prize in 1980 for his work defending human rights during the dictatorship, suggested on his website that the pope occupied a middle ground during Argentina's dark years. "I don't consider Bergoglio an accomplice of the dictatorship, but I think he lacked courage to accompany our fight and that of [human rights]," he wrote.

Other Argentines said critics of the pontiff may be holding him to an unrealistic standard. Political scientist Rosendo Fraga said: "In this country, the accusation of having denounced or failed to denounce violations of human rights is used politically and selectively." He added that some appointees of the Kirchner era had ties to past military governments, such as a former economy minister who became an ambassador under the Kirchners.

Bergoglio: A Man for the Church

A 1976 military coup unfolded while Pope Francis, then 39 years old, was provincial superior of Argentine Jesuits. Thousands of people thought to have links to leftist guerrilla groups were rounded up. Two Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics, were kidnapped from the slum where they worked, held for five months in an army torture center, then dumped, drugged and disoriented, in a barrio outside the capital. The case fell out of the public eye until 1999, long after Argentina's return to democracy, and not long after Father Bergoglio had been named archbishop of Buenos Aires. A former leftist guerrilla who had become a prominent journalist, Horacio Verbitsky, published an article questioning the cleric's role in the case, under the headline, "What did you do during the Dirty War, Father?"

The article quoted Father Yorio, who died in 2000, as saying the future pope "didn't warn us of the danger" and ostracized the two due to their work in slums, seen as hotbeds of subversion. Father Yorio was quoted saying he had no "reason to think that [Bergoglio] did anything to win our liberty, rather quite the opposite."

The role of the Catholic Church and other institutions during the dictatorship took on greater weight when Mrs. Kirchner's late husband, Néstor, became president in 2003. He revoked a previous government's amnesty for officials from the dictatorship, and began prosecuting long dormant human- rights cases.

The then-cardinal mostly avoided addressing his actions during the junta until publication of his authorized biography, El Jesuita, in 2010. In that book, he said he took high-risk, but secretive, measures to help victims of persecution.

In the case of the kidnapped priests, Cardinal Bergoglio said in his book that he did warn them of the dangers before their arrest. The cardinal also said he pulled strings to try to win the priests' release, convincing a military chaplain who celebrated Mass for the then-head of the junta, Gen. Jorge Videla, to call in sick, so that he himself could preside over the Mass and intercede on behalf of the kidnapped priests.

After the cardinal's ascension to pope, Mr. Verbitsky stepped up attacks, dubbing Pope Francis a "conservative populist." He published another column Thursday quoting an email he said he received from Graciela Yorio, the sister of one of the kidnapped priests, who had died in 2000. "He's the right person to cover up the rot" [in the Catholic Church], the column quoted her as writing. "He's an expert in covering things up."

Ms. Yorio and Mr. Verbitsky weren't available to comment Friday.

Father Jalics, the other kidnapped priest, issued a statement from Germany, where he lives: "I have nothing to say about the role of Father Bergoglio in these events."

He said after his release, he and Father Bergoglio once celebrated Mass together and "formally embraced each other. "I have found my peace with these events and, as far as I am concerned, have closed this chapter."

—John Stoll in Rome, Ken Parks in Argentina and William Boston in Berlin contributed to this article.

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